Life...or death?

Your link for the day, that hits a little too close to home.

The link is from CNN, and it links to an article about where the line is when it no longer seems feasible to keep a terminally sick person alive.

The 'too close part' is this: my brother-in-law's (Adam) wife's (LauraLee) mother was in a car accident on Friday , 27 July 07, at 2600 South and Highway 89 in Woods Cross. The power was out, and someone ran the 4-way stop. She was Life-flighted to the U (University of Utah), where her family was told that she was brain-dead.

Now, I don't know what her exact condition right now is, but I wouldn't want to be left 'alive' if I knew I would never regain any semblance of my normal life. Nor would I want to be strung along while my family waited for a miracle to return me to normal (or, for me, what passes as normal).

To quote the article "Recent research into the brain seems to be making it more difficult to say when a terminal patient is actually dead. It turns out that patients considered brain-dead may have a minimal consciousness left and therefore still be technically alive.

"The research seems to suggest that it's very difficult to distinguish the minimally conscious from the permanently unconscious," said Georgetown bioethics professor Robert Veatch."

Where does life end and death begin? Who is ultimately responsible for making the life-altering decisions for me when I can't make them?

If anything, this week has made me realize the importance of having a living will made up, as we never know when we're gonna kick the bucket.

"I wanna go home..." "Shut up, you little weasel!"...

OK...

Your link for the day.

For those of you who haven't read the 7th Harry Potter book yet, but are going to: don't click the link as it contains spoilers.. For those of you who don't care, click away!

The link is a short article about what happens after the end of Book 7. Right on.

Monday...

I picked up the last Harry Potter book on Saturday, started it on Sunday morning, and I'm about 80% done. I think I'll finish it tonight.

I'm not gonna post spoilers, nor does this link have any. I will say that I like this book A LOT!!!!!1111 It's very exciting. I've even felt chilly-bumps when I've read it.

Ahhh, Friday...

...this thread got me thinking: Would I pay $100 million for a real lightsaber?

I know my brother-in-law Craig would, and I'd hope everyone would get in cortosis-weave bunkers when he does. But me, I don't know. It sure would be cool, even if I couldn't block bullets or anything.

I suppose, ultimately, it would be pretty useless. Cool, but not useful.

Have a fun weekend. Val and I are gonna play racquetball tonight. Whoo hoo!

And, Happy Birthday to my sweet mother-in-law today.

Bye!

PS Oh, and if you've been living under a rock and haven't heard, the last Harry Potter book comes out tomorrow. Go out and support a great author, if you want.

Update #2 - a cool qoute I heard this week that I like: Honesty is the highest form of love.

Indeed it is.

So.....tired.....

...that I'm gonna wimmp out on this post, and post a few ninja pictures.

Bye!

A few changes for your visual input...

Well, a couple of changes here today.

I added a counter at the bottom of the blog to keep track of how many hits this little blog gets.

I renamed the blog into something a bit more .... interesting. Have I metioned just how much I like tofu? No? Well, tomato basil baked tofu and/or savory baked tofu are SO EXCELLENT with noodles and tomato sauce. The savory tofu has the same consistency as chicken, so it goes great with pasta, or on top of rice with soy cheese, sweet-n-sour sauce and lettuce. MMMMMMmmm. Yummy.

Mom and dad's anniversary is today. They have been married 30 years I think. Dad's birthday is tomorrow. Rock on!

I think they both have completed their move to WA, even if they haven't started/finished unpacking yet.

Sorry for being silent last week. I took Thursday and Friday off last week, along with the free day on the 4th. 5-day weekends for the win!

By the way, the 4th was lots of fun. Went and played volleyball in 100+ degree heat, sweated a lot, swam for 2 hours, stuffed myself silly, and went and watched fireworks at Lagoon. And I did all of this in the knowledge that I didn't need to be back to work until today.

Evil? Absolutely Fun? Definitely.

The best part is that I didn't even get sunburned. SPF 30+ FtW!(for the win)

Ah, inventory...

It's almost done. I've been here since 6 this morning, and I'll prolly be here til 4 or 5.

Easy money, as they say.

Have a great weekend!

A little too close...

...this happened about half a mile from work, at the Arby's I used to go to lunch at. It's on Redwood and 17th South. Apparently they tire-spiked Redwood to get him, after he killed a police officer at the U, car-jacked someone's Ford, then ran amok on I-15 and -215 at high speed.

Here is another link/photo of this...person. He's freaky lookin'.

All of this makes me want to conceal/carry more and more. That, and it makes me wonder about the state/efficacy of the justice department and its enforcement.

I also wonder why people who do this think they can get away from the law. Sure, you can get a fast car, but you can't outrun radio, can you?

Ben can appreciate this quote "It's not his fault that he can behave/society's made him go astray/perhaps if we're nice he'll go away."

Father's Day pictures...

Here's me with my most excellent tie that Val got me for Dia de padres. It goes great with my suit, don't you think?

By the way, it's hard to keep your eyes open in direct sunlight...

Post #2

Ahhhh, game playing fathers. Excellent.

I plan on having 2 or 3 old computers LANed for my kids and Val, so we can all play together. What fun it would be to play MechWarrior 3 or 4 together, or maybe Birth of the Federation. Right on!

I disagree...

I'm all for game guides. I have no problem buying them, looking at them, reading up on the game I'm gonna play. It is frustrating to play a game and not be able to find the things you need in-game. Game guides obviate that frustration.

It's not cheating, it's aiding me to keep my blood-pressure down. And that helps everyone. Besides, no one likes to lose.

Now, Valerie doesn't agree with this view, and that's OK. She'll play until she's about to give up before she'll go to a guide. Again, that's OK.

Here is the link to the comic.

Ahhh, deoxyribonucleic acid, how important you are...

...and how complex you are.

DNA is more complex than people thought, and the so called 'junk DNA' is not junk after all.

Makes me wonder what else there is in the world that we think we understand, but don't really. I think it's everything. Also makes me wonder how people can deny the existence of God, and think that all life is an astronomically huge (statistically speaking) coincidence.

(/soapbox)

I was cruisin' teh intarwebs this morning...

...and I came upon this.

It's a map comparing states' GDP's to other countries in the world.

It looks like UT has the same GDP (gross domestic product) as the country of Peru.
Michigan = Argentina , AZ= Thailand , ID=Ukraine , CA = France(wow!)

I think there are some people who have more time on their hands than they know what to do with. I suppose I'm one of them since I found it(but someone had a link on Ars that I followed).

Wow, that was quick...

...Mom and dad sold the IF house in 3 FRICKIN' DAYS!

3!

They put it up Thursday 7 June, had an offer of $2k more than they were asking on Friday, and they signed off yesterday.

Amazing...

Back to days...

...and boy is my schedule whacked. I couldn't get to sleep until ~12 last night, and woke up @ ~6. It's been a bit of a long day.

I have nothing to say today, yet, but if something comes up, I'll let you know.

I'm not gonna get on my soapbox...

...all I am gonna say is that this is a very sad situation, and it involves everybody.

I think the link speaks for itself.

I'm workin' nights this week, so I'm gonna go.

Have fun!

P.S. An interesting weekend. Val decided she wanted to go up into the foothills close to the house, in preparation to taking her Cub Scouts sometime in the near future. I should have worn pants, but nothing found me appetizing, fortunately. We only went ~ 2 miles, and the trail is ~6. Just a bit long. She wants to do the whole thing some morning soon. I don't think I really want to, but I'll prolly go so that she doesn't go alone.

Here's the first one...

...all put together. It's about 6.5 feet long, and weighs about 1000+ lbs. It's expensive, too. At least $40 or $50, as Tim said yesterday. He's the one w/ the mustache in the top picture. Rob is the other guy. He (Rob) is the one who came by first yesterday and started putting things together. In person they look lots less dorky than they look in this picture. In fact, they're lots of fun to be around.

This printer seems pretty cool. It'll staple things by itself, and can hold a WHOLE FREAKIN' BUTTLOAD of paper. Those 3 drawers on the right will hold at least a case of paper, and the others can hold a lot also.

I know, I know...Geeky fun. Oh well.

One of the new printers came in yesterday...

...and here is the stack. The 'automated-output' printer is on the right, and the stack of associated hardware on the left is taller than John is. And this is just one printer of possibly 3.

I'm not sure how we're gonna fit 1 or 2 more in here. I thought we had a lot of room, but the boxes take up a ton of room. We can handle 1 more, but 2 is ...'iffy'.

Maybe, when the others come in, we'll have to unpack them outside, and then wheel them in to place.

They take up a lot of room, but it sorta feels like Christmas. We both want to get in to stuff and put it together. But, like good boys, we'll wait for the IBM guy to come in and do it.

A slow week...

...which is why I haven't posted anything.

But here is your Friday post...

Played racquetball last night, and didn't do too bad. Here are the scores: 11-15, 15-5, 3-15, 2-2.
I won 1 out of 3 games, which is better than last time. The last game we were running out of time, and that was the score we were at when we finished.

All things considered, I don't feel too sore from last night, but I REALLY should get back in to the exercising thing. It's hard to start again...

Have a great Memorial Day!

Well, it's Friday...

...and I'm in to work for ~1.5 hours, to help Mark through the busiest part of the day. I think I'll leave around 1 or 1.15.

Soryy for not posting this week. Either there hasn't been anything worth it to post, or I've been so busy putting out figurative AS400 fires to even try to post. It seems to have stabilized now, and hopefully this coming Sunday is better than the last one.

Have a great weekend...